Hot off the line

019 - Citroen C1
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

You know the feeling - the lights turn green and the middle-aged, middle-class business type whose total contribution to achieving rapid take offs is his or her investment in an expensive driving machine. They have, as it were, bought a heavier right foot than you. If it were some lad in a cooking and aging near-future scrap yard material it is not so bad, it's what you expect - young and desperately pushing.

Why then, is my 1 liter Citroen C1 in standard trim almost always the first across the junction?

If you find yourself at the front of the queue at the lights, do not stop on the line but instead something like a meter before. Road regulations usually state something like you are not supposed to cross that line except when the lights are green - so you need to be rolling forward on amber in order to cross on green, hence you must first have stopped before the line.

When the light has been red for a while it is time to slip the car into first, lift the clutch slightly, hold the car stationery on the handbrake / parking brake with that little button pushed in, and your right foot resting on the gas - not on the brake. When the light turns amber / orange, start moving forward, the exact timing will depend on how long your set of lights spends on amber before turning green.

You will be surprised ho much advantage being moving makes, and you do not have to burn rubber to achieve it.

Tradition for who?

016-Tradition for who?
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

This picture was an experiment, hence the odd looking angles of the 'children', although i am not concerned because it meets my 'pure Art without Craft' specification - in that I could have spent the time improving my craft to get the camera angles 'right', but in doing so would have lost the Art, which is in the message and how i produce that message.

Being born English and living in Poland means that I am surrounded by people, possibly people like you, who are continually trying to strip away elements of me and replace them with 'Polish' elements. I am under pressure, even from the nicest of people to conform, simply because that increases their comfort. What is the problem in accepting people as they are instead of trying to forever ram them into shapes that they do not fit? It is nearly Christmas, and we will have a small pre-Christmas party at the office, where people expect me to either bring some Polish or British Christmas food, the latter for the 'ooh' factor and because many obviously believe that living the British tradition is what I most desire. Why can I not bring something from a third culture or, may i be burnt at the stake for contemplating it, something that is not of the standardised version of any culture's Christmas tradition? Well, I will be bring white bread, a toaster and some marmalade - that is what i want and, since few people here have ever had such a combination, I want to share it with them - and sharing is supposed to be a core element of the Polish Christmas tradition.

The sad fact is that few people even bother to think about the meaning of tradition, and by such a lack hurt people from outside their vision without even understanding they are doing so. What partly makes me me is the ability and care I have in thinking about things, so in the case of the Christmas party if they want to bring what they consider to be traditional then fine, I will be happy for them, but why can they not be happy with me?

The answer is that they have too tightly moulded their tradition - it no longer serves its purpose but instead is a mere passage to oppress more people in the future - and my ego is not so large as to insist that future people have to live by my custom. So what if they do forget all we do now, will there lives be any less for it, or will they indeed have enough people of talent to create new traditions?

Penjection

014-penjection
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

I meet a lot of people who are book junkies, partly because I work with translators and teachers of language. Although bristling with advanced degrees in linguistics, a great interest in consuming books, few have the the courage or the conviction to turn their back on their professor's preaching and find their own place in this world of words. The result is that they largely remain passive consumers of words, ever-looking for that next fix but never really taking all that knowledge anywhere.

Society generally encourages people to collect things, as long as they are safe things like stamps, ornaments, paintings - things with a secure tradition as collectables, but for what purpose? To meet people with similar interests? An archaeologist is also a collector, but does not collect to amass an impressive array of object, to meet people of similar interests or to learn what is known - the archaeologist instead wants to deduce the unknown, to write the books that other collectors to define their possessions.

Book knowledge is similar, if you only seek to learn what is known then become like a silent partner in a conversation - offering nothing but silent disapproval of any error in grammar or vocabulary.

When I was at primary school I always had to use a pencil, as my handwriting style never achieved a level deemed by the teacher good enough to warrant one of her cartridge pens. At schools here in Poland they are taught really fancy forms of lettering and insist that they are used - nothing but hell for students like me who lack the skill in forming fine letters inflicted by teachers without the ability or vision to know how to teach me any different. Our niece is able to form these letters, but she has dyslexia, and the teachers have no skill in dealing with her problem.

Even scarier, many of the linguists teaching at university here will downgrade students work for poor calligraphy - so what would they do with me in an exam, as I have arthritis and on some days find it difficult to form letters even to my normal rough and ready style?

Writing is an ill-taught skill, with little understanding of how to encourage the art in writing. We are told that presentation is very important, which is a pity as potential employers must get as tired of well-presented trash as they do poorly presented quality.

Things to do with Ladders

011-Things to do with Ladders
Originally uploaded by gingerpig2000

Continuing my exploration of Bond-M-Q personalities, here are three aspects of me with the 'Bond' in ascension. I store the images I use here on Flikr, and back in the summer i got involved in a group that takes photos every day on a chosen subject, and built up quite a following. These days I spend little time there and as a consequence the popularity of my images has fallen drastically, largely because many people count as their friends those people who admire them - you get feedback as long as you continue to admire, and you are much more understandable. Looking at work that is not going to generate some feedback is of much less interest. Spend you time in bond mode and you will generate much more interest, be beautiful and people will want to be seen with you for comparison (like having your photographs being shown alongside those of a famous photographer).

OK, fair enough, but where does this leave people unable to be beautiful of engage their bond? The answer is, too often, alone or unable to demonstrate their full ability. I quickly get bored by bonds and the beautiful, while they impress early it is not long before their smiles wear out their welcome, I am much more interested in people who have to struggle to achieve anything, I look for that hidden potential and try and draw it out.

This photo is for all those people who are alone, not for those who have many friends and a reasonable job but are merely dissatisfied. You can achieve without expensive equipment, learning how to do more with a little can help you to focus on position, layout and the relationship between people and objects.